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September 3, 2016

Life Lately

Good morning friends!

I’ll be heading to Atlanta shortly, but I wanted to pop in and catch the blog up on some things going on lately since I haven’t been around much. I’m so excited about my trip to Atlanta – I’ll see my precious cousin and her little ones, my grandmother, some aunts and uncles, and friends on this trip while also taking a class for the Series 7 Exam. So what’s been going on?

I bought a house!

Crazy, I know. I had a great experience buying a house and would love to recap that at some point. I have a few projects on the horizon, so there will definitely be some before/after posts coming soon.

I’m getting fairly settled in, but it’s been crazy busy in my neck of the woods and things are coming together a lot more slowly than I initially anticipated. The kitchen is organized though and I have my coffee pot brewing coffee, so that is the biggest start to making a house feel like home in my opinion. This has been such a fun and exciting experience for me and I’m so thrilled to have my sister living with me during this time!

Street Vegan and other Vegan Cookbooks

I’ve been waiting to have my own kitchen back for 3 years now. Over the past 3 years, I have collected a multitude of vegan cookbooks. One of which was recently given to me by some friends. My birthday is in April, but I didn’t get this gift until last week, which turned out to be perfect timing with buying a house. This cookbook looks so unique and fun! I’m also looking forward to cooking from Raw. Vegan. Not Gross. and Vegan Cooking for Carnivores.

Book Club is Back!!

This is very very exciting, y’all! We took a little book club hiatus and kept talking and talking about getting it back together…. well, we finally took the plunge!! We started off with a night at Katy’s picking books and hostesses. Katy provided tiny home-made pizza’s that we could personalize. It was so much fun, we always have a great time getting together! It’s wonderful to love who you work with and I certainly do.

Then Chris made the cutest bookmarks to let us know when/where/which book we’ll be reading! The first book club was at Chris’ house and she made some delicious bruschetta.

The host always provides the dinner and then you bring your own choice of beverage, usually wine.

My best friend is back

Back in July, I got a text message from my friend Lacy (who I met as a VISTA and who was currently working and living in South Carolina) that said she was applying to Law School at Mississippi College in Jackson, MS. I was thrilled to say the least, but honestly didn’t believe it would actually happen. I knew she’d get in and I knew she’d get the scholarship she wanted because she’s brilliant, but I wasn’t sure if she would actually take the plunge and move here. Her boyfriend is still in South Carolina and I didn’t really think she’d be too excited about moving back to Mississippi. She got accepted, got the scholarship, and decided to accept! She’ll be here for three years and we have so many memories to make! The very first memory made was with Sweet Tea, of course.

Well, that highlights a little about what’s been going on. I’m off to finish laundry & packing, but I’m hoping to be back more frequently these days. I have internet at my new house now, I have inspirational places to blog, and I have lots to blog about!

What’s been going on in your life lately?
Have you bought a house, what was your experience?
What do you think makes a house feel more like a home?

January 13, 2015

I said no to Peanut Butter Cake!

Hey there!

How is your Tuesday morning shaping up? I’ve already enjoyed a delicious breakfast and coffee, so I’d venture to say I’m doing pretty well, although I’m heading into work a little early this morning so it’s going to be a fairly long day! I have my second Chiropractor appointment this morning and I’m hoping to get the a-okay to run again! If I do, I’ll be screaming it from the roof tops so you should know pretty soon too!

Today is Day 2 of the Engine 2 Diet and so far so good! Here’s a quick run down of my food from yesterday (Day 1):

Breakfast: Cinnamon Raisin Ezekial Bread + peanut butter + banana + cinnamon w/ a cup of coffee flavored with almond milk and cinnamon

Snack: Clementine + half a cucumber

Lunch: Whole Wheat crackers + peanut butter + a Lara Bar

Snack: Clementine + half a cucumber

Dinner: Whole Wheat Pasta with Tomato Sauce + Leafy Green Salad + Tangerine Vinaigrette dressing

Dessert: Kiwi

I decided to keep track of what all I turn down over the next month so I can realistically see what all I would have eaten and how many calories I would have taken in. I’m sure it’ll be shocking once I add it all up at the end of the month. I remember during the Health Starts Here challenge that I turned down A LOT of junk food mostly and I wish I had kept a journal of what I said no to so I could see the real impact a plant-based diet made in my life. I know one thing… I turned down this beautiful peanut butter icing cake and opted for a kiwi. If that’s not self-control then I have NO IDEA what is!

I am concerned that I’m not getting enough food. Don’t get me wrong, I felt satisfied pretty much all day, but I also felt like I missed out on some important nutrients so I need to work on that. I know last time I felt the same way until eventually I got the hang of it and it became relatively easy to get enough nutrients during the day. It’s a learning process and takes a lot of effort, but it’s entirely worth it! I’m excited to see how I feel at the end of the challenge – it’ll end about 2 weeks before my Marathon so I’ll be nice & healthy for it!

Here are some dessert recipes I look forward to trying on the Engine 2 Diet so hopefully I won’t need beautiful peanut butter cake:

Banana Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

Blueberry Dumpster Cobbler

Dark Chocolate Brownies

What would you miss most on the Engine 2 Diet? Dairy, Processed Foods, Sugar, Oil, or Meat?
Have you been to a Chiropractor? Did it seem to help the issues you were having?

I definitely miss sugars the most, I have such a sweet tooth.

I’m really hoping the Chiropractor will help my knee pain and get me back to running. I’m also hoping that I see such a drastic difference in my stride since I’ll be properly aligned. It amazes me that I’ve been running with these issues for so long that surely this will be such a shocking improvement on my first run back!

December 8, 2014

New Design + Thanksgiving (part 1)

Happy Monday!!

Maybe you notice the updated blog design – I got tired of messing with my own design and my navigation bar continued to not work, so I buckled down and bought a fairly inexpensive design that was super easy to put together! Etsy is great for finding pre-made blog templates for those of you looking! I’m excited to be back up and running. I was having a lot of issues around Thanksgiving with the blog, so I ended up not posting or re-capping at all, but Thanksgiving was a wonderful time had by all.

First, my weekend was pretty basic. Didn’t have a lot of plans, did a lot of cleaning and rearranging, got the spare room ready for my sisters to come to town next weekend, did an 8 mile run (it was supposed to be 10), had coffee with a friend, and went to Whole Foods! My marathon training is going…. okay. I’m just a couple miles behind on my long runs, but I’m feeling stronger and more confident. I really need to focus on strength training – it’s be lacking. I also need to focus on being more active in the evenings. I do my runs like I should, but I also spend a lot of time watching TV or messing with the computer. Running, but then leading a sedentary life style is not going to cut it!

Breakfast this morning was delicious toast with peanut butter, banana, honey, and cinnamon along with a comforting cup of french vanilla coffee.

Now for my very late Thanksgiving Re-cap (Part 1)

Nick and I arrived to Gainesville later in the day on Tuesday before Thanksgiving. When we got there, his siblings weren’t at the house, but we spent some time with Kathryn & Nick’s dad until they arrived. Nick and his siblings were so excited to spend some quality time together so naturally we had a late night planned. A good many strenuous games of Jenga ensued!

We finally headed off to bed only so we could wake up really early for our day at Disney! We left the house around 6am and got there in time for opening at Epcot. We definitely picked the wrong line to stand in because the people in front of us had NO CLUE what finger they used for their magic band.I kid you not…. the guy asked him, “What finger did you use the first time you scanned your magic band?” The guy said, “This one” and held it up. The cast member replied, “Ok, use that finger.” and then the not so smart person in front of my proceeded to use a DIFFERENT finger. I didn’t get it, but finally Nick and I made it in line for Soarin’. Soarin’ is one of our favorite rides! After Soarin’, we decided to have breakfast in The Land.

I ordered the eggs, hashbrowns, french toast, and biscuit platter. It came with sausage & bacon, but I passed that along to Nick. The hashbrowns were absolutely delicious! So much flavor to them. The rest of it was pretty basic, but still very good & satisfying.

Nick ordered a breakfast Panini that came with eggs, ham, and some other stuff. He thought it was really good. He made a comment about how there are good & bad things to me not eating meat… The good is that he gets the meat that I don’t want (i.e. the bacon & sausage), the bad is that when he tries something so delicious, he wants me to experience it as well, but I won’t eat it. That’s what he said about the Panini. He really wanted me to try it, but I couldn’t. He also likes how me not eating meat helps incorporate more vegetarian dishes into his life though. There are definitely some give & takes when you’re with a non-meat eater, but then again… that’s with any relationship!

After breakfast, we went and did Figment & Captain EO. We had never done Captain EO before, but It turned out really good. Not gonna lie, it was kind of nice seeing Michael Jackson performing. Around this time, we were ready to walk around the world. I was able to purchase my dad’s Christmas gift while there and I also grabbed some German chocolate for us all to share when we got back to Gainesville. It was a little chilly, so we grabbed some warm Apple Cider while we looked around.

Our next stop was Animal Kingdom, but unfortunately it was SO CROWDED! Ridiculously crowded in my opinion… we didn’t ride a single ride while we were at Animal Kingdom. We did manage to get a vegan donut, my favorite!

After that, we decided to head home a little early so we could spend some more time with Nick’s siblings before they headed out of town the next day. We enjoyed our day at Disney, but I’m so thankful we chose to head back because we had such a wonderful evening together. On the way back to Gainesville, we saw the coolest sunset.

I’ll recap part 2 later, for now I need to get ready for work. If you’re interested in reading about any other of my Disney adventures, then check those out here!

Have a great week and I’ll talk to y’all soon!

Life Lately

I said no to Peanut Butter Cake!

New Design + Thanksgiving (part 1)

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